Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 12:27
Forums
High Arctic Change 2011

Hello, Mr. Goldner and the rest of the team! To start off, I wanted to say how cool it's been to follow your adventures so far, so I'm doing my first journal entry.

The entry was July 20, 2011. I was wondering about the echo sounder devices, the gravity coring devices, and the CTD devices. What exactly do these devices do?

Thanks! Hope to hear from you guys soon!

Elijah

Thu, 07/21/2011 - 13:16

Mark Goldner

Hello Elijah! Great to hear from you! I'm glad you're enjoying reading about our adventures so far.I will be writing much more at length very soon about each of these devices, but since you asked I'll give you a very short summary.
The echo sounders use sound waves (sonar) to bounce a sound off the bottom of the ocean floor to determine the depth of the ocean floor. From that information we can make maps of the ocean floor.
The gravity corers take a cylindrical sample of the mud on the sea floor about 3 feet long and about 2 inches in diameter. The "cores" will be shipped back to the states and analyzed to see what's inside - what the different layers contain, such as minerals and maybe even living organisms like diatoms.
The CTD devices measure Conductivity, Temperature and Depth. Conductivity gives you a measure of how much salt is in the water (you might remember about the fact that if there is more salt in the water it conducts electricity better). We'll do this test at many different points. At each point, knowing how much salt is in the water and the temperature at different depths helps you know many things. For example, one question might be what effect does cold freshwater have on the warmer, saltier ocean water?
Thanks for asking the questions! Keep them coming!
- Mr. G.